Abaqulusi fire, July 2026 Abaqulusi
The fire started on 26 July 2026 in Abaqulusi, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,404 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 115th largest in KwaZulu-Natal since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 108 in South Africa in 2026, of 142.
- Burnt area
- 2,404ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 26 Jul 2026 – 27 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 26 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 79
- in a single hotspot: 54 MW
- Danger at start
- 29
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 917MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.0 mm on 30 Jul.
This area had burned before
30% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 725 ha in 2019, 4 ha in 2022.
What happened to each town
-
Abaqulusi where it started2,415 ha reached on 26 Jul0.6 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Jul | 21.4 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 27 Jul | 25.1 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 28 Jul after | 18.7 °C | 40 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 29 Jul after | 16.9 °C | 46 % | 26 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 30 Jul after | 16.7 °C | 39 % | 35 km/h | 3.0 mm | Low 6 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 28 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 30 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 79Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Abaqulusi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 July 2026 and 27 July 2026: 2 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,404 hectares (24.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Abaqulusi (2,415 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 25.1 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of South Africa (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Emergency number: 10177 · 112
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.